A post on SemiAccurate breaks down some information from PC Watch (translation) suggesting that Intel's upcoming Broadwell CPUs will be soldered to the motherboard, rather than socketed, a detail they have now confirmed with a pair of OEMs. They offer the distressed opinion that this will be a death knell to the desktop PC and the enthusiast market, and though they add that they've received information indicating there's a "good chance" that the Sky Lake processors that will follow Broadwell will be socketed for one or two generations to follow, they conclude: "By then the last remaining overclockers and experimenters on the PC front will be gone, and for good technical reasons." Thanks Ant via Slashdot.

PropheT wrote on Nov 27, 2012, 12:51:I just don't see them going from one generation where they release locked and unlocked processors to the next where they solder them directly to the motherboard

This. It would be a bizarre move if it's true and it would have a devastating effect on the enthusiast market. If AMD was to finally produce a decent CPU - and unfortunately that's a long shot at the moment - then people would quickly switch.